The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2023 - January 18, 2024
Dolly Varden has identified multiple gold and silver deposits and targets across the10-kilometer-long Kitsault Valley Trend.
In its second season since consolidating the Dolly Varden and Homestake Ridge projects to form the Kitsault Valley property, Dolly Varden Silver Corp. has focused its exploration on expanding the already established silver and gold deposits, as well as exploring the wider potential of this 63-square-mile (163 square kilometers) property about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Stewart, British Columbia.
Four deposits associated with past producing mines on the Dolly Varden end of Kitsault Valley – Torbrit, Dolly Varden, Wolf, and North Star – host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.93 million oz) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.45 million oz) silver.
Homestake Ridge, which lies 5.5 kilometers (3.5 miles) northwest of the northernmost Dolly Varden deposit, hosts three deposits with 736,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 g/t (165,993 oz) gold and 74.8 g/t (1.8 million oz) silver; plus 5.55 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.58 g/t (816,719 oz) gold and 100 g/t (17.8 million oz) silver.
Dolly Varden planned to complete 43,000 meters of drilling at Kitsault Valley in 2023. Having blown past that target by early September and having cash left in its seasonal budget, the company expanded the program to 51,454 meters.
The 2023 drilling began at Torbrit and Wolf. There is evidence these two northernmost Dolly Varden deposits may be linked and drilling has been tracing this potential connection.
In August, Dolly Varden reported the first batch of assays from the 2023 program. Highlights from the holes drilled at Torbrit and Kitsol Vein, a northwest extension of Torbrit, include:
• 18 meters averaging 342 g/t silver in hole DV23-336 (Kitsol).
• 9.57 meters averaging 496 g/t silver in hole DV23-337 (Kitsol).
• 3.5 meters averaging 334 g/t silver in hole DV23-348 (Torbrit).
Drilling also continued to cut high-grade silver at Wolf, which lies about 1,400 meters northwest of Torbrit. Highlights from drilling the southwest extension of Wolf include:
• 18.1 meters averaging 246 g/t silver in hole DV23-352.
• 29.3 meters averaging 381 g/t silver in hole DV23-368.
The high-grade silver in hole DV23-368 represents a 75-meter down-plunge step-out on the southwest end of Wolf and in the direction of Torbrit.
"As the drilling progresses at Wolf we are seeing the continuity to depth of the high-grade silver mineralization," said Dolly Varden Silver President and CEO Shawn Khunkhun. "Drill hole DV-368 has extended the length of potentially underground bulk-mineable mineralization plunge to over 950 meters and it remains wide open for expansion, with ongoing drilling continuing to step-out to the south."
The success at Kitsault Valley has drawn the interest and another strategic investment from Hecla Mining Company.
Hecla, which already held a 10.6% stake in Dolly Varden, acquired another 15.38 million shares of the company at C65 cents each, increasing its interest to 15.7%.
"Hecla is the world's fastest growing established silver producer, the largest in the US and soon to be in Canada," said Khunkhun. "We celebrate Hecla agreeing to increase their stake in Dolly from 10% to 15% and want to extend our gratitude for their financial and technical support of the company and the project."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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